System and method for delivering missed portions of media assets to interested viewers

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein for efficiently “catching-up” a user that is interested in a media asset when that user has missed a portion of the media asset while consuming the media asset together with other people. The system may detect that multiple people are consuming a media asset and may determine, based on a respective profile of each person, whether that person is interested in the media asset. When the system detects that the user is disregarding the media asset, the missed portion of the media asset is stored if the user is interested in the media asset, and is not stored if the user is not interested in the media asset.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/334,202, filed May 10, 2016, the disclosure of which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

People often get together to consume content together (e.g., watchsporting events or a movie). While consuming content, a person maybecome distracted by, for example, a phone call or a text message, ormay leave the room for a short time period. When a person getsdistracted, that person may miss part of the content that is beingconsumed. Traditional systems deal with this situation by recording andstoring a latest portion of the content being viewed (e.g., the lastshown 30 minutes of a movie that is playing). When the person who leftthe room comes back, that person is able to “catch up” by rewinding themovie until a point when he or she became distracted and then missedwatching the missed portion. However, those systems store or record themissed portions without regard to whether the person who is disregardingthe media asset is likely to want to consume that missed portion.

Thus, traditional systems are inefficient and ineffective at leastbecause they indiscriminately record or store content without regard asto whether that content is likely to be consumed, thereby wastingresources (e.g., tuner time to record the content and storage space tostore it). Moreover, as the person who missed a portion of the mediaasset is “catching up” to the current time, other viewers are forced toconsume the same portion of the content again.

SUMMARY

Therefore, systems and methods are described herein for efficiently“catching up” a user who is interested in a media asset when that userhas missed a portion of the media asset while consuming the media assettogether with other people. Specifically, the system detects that morethan one person is consuming a media asset and determines, based on arespective profile of each person, whether that person is likely to beinterested in the media asset. Those users who are interested in themedia asset are placed in one group and those users who are not areplaced in another group. When the system detects that one of the usersis disregarding the media asset, the system determines whether the useris interested in the media asset based on which group the user wasplaced into. If the user is interested in the media asset, the systemstores the missed portion of the media asset, and if the user is notinterested in the media asset, the system refrains from storing thatportion of the media asset.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may be configured foreffective utilization of resources by restricting initialization of acatch-up mechanism to users who are interested in a media asset. Themedia guidance application may detect that a plurality of users areconsuming a media asset from the same user equipment. For example,several couples may get together to watch a particular movie.

The media guidance application may determine, for each respective userof the plurality of users, whether a respective user is interested inthe media asset. In order to make that determination, the media guidanceapplication may compare data of a respective profile of the respectiveuser to metadata of the media asset. In response to determining that thedata of the respective profile matches the metadata of the media asset,the media guidance application may determine that the respective user isinterested in the media asset. In response to determining that the dataof the respective profile does not match the metadata of the mediaasset, the media guidance application may determine that the respectiveuser is not interested in the media asset.

For example, if several couples get together to watch a romance movie,as can be determined from metadata associated with the movie, the mediaguidance application may determine that some of the people areinterested in the movie while others are not by comparing a profile ofeach user to the metadata of the movie. If a profile of a specific usermatches a genre of romance, then the media guidance application maydetermine that the user is interested in the media asset. If a profileof a specific user does not match the genre of romance then the mediaguidance application may determine that the user is not interested inthe media asset. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetermine that the data of the respective profile matches the metadataassociated with the media asset by comparing keywords within the profileto keywords in the metadata. For example, if the user's profile includesa name of an actress that the user likes or a genre of a program thatthe user enjoys, the media guidance application may search for thosekeywords in the metadata associated with the media asset to determine amatch. If the media guidance application finds one or more keywords as aresult of the search, the media guidance application may determine thatthe data of the respective profiles matches the metadata associated withthe media asset.

The media guidance application may identify a first subset of theplurality of users that includes each respective user who is interestedin the media asset and also identify a second subset of the plurality ofusers that includes each respective user who is not interested in themedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may place thepeople who are interested in romance into one group and people who arenot interested in romance into another. It should be noted that themedia guidance application may determine that one user is interested ina media asset because that user enjoys a certain genre (e.g., romance),while another user may be determined to be interested in the media assetbecause the user likes a certain actor who is featured in the mediaasset. Thus, users can be determined to be interested in a media assetbased on different categories (e.g., genre, actor, director, etc.).

The media guidance application may detect that a user of the pluralityof users is disregarding the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may utilize a camera to track each user and detectwhen a user started disregarding the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect that the user is using a smart phone, istalking to another person, or has left the room. Additionally oralternatively, the media guidance application may detect that a user isdisregarding the media asset by simply detecting that the user is nolonger looking in the direction of the device that is playing the mediaasset.

The media guidance application may determine whether the user isidentified in the first subset or in the second subset. In response todetermining that the user is identified in the first subset, the mediaguidance application may store a portion of the media asset starting ata time when the user started disregarding the media asset. In responseto determining that the user is in the second subset, the media guidanceapplication may refrain from storing the portion of the media assetstarting at the time when the user started disregarding the media asset.

To continue with the example above, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the user who is disregarding the romance movie is inthe group of people who are interested in romance movies or in the groupof people who are not interested in romance movies. If the mediaguidance application determines that the user who is disregarding themedia asset is in the group of people who are interested in romancemovies, the media guidance application may begin recording the romancemovie from the time when the user started disregarding the media asset.If the media guidance application determines that the user who isdisregarding the romance movie is in the group of people who are notinterested in the media asset, the media guidance application may notstart recording the romance movie.

In some embodiments, it may be useful to transmit the stored portion ofthe media asset to a device associated with the user who is disregardingthe media asset so that the user is able to “catch up” without forcingthe other people who are consuming the media asset to have to watch apart of the media asset again. Thus, the media guidance application may,when storing the portion of the media asset starting at the time whenthe user started disregarding the media asset, detect a plurality ofaccessible user equipment, each corresponding to a respective user. Themedia guidance application may identify a user equipment of theplurality of user equipment that is associated with the user who isdisregarding the media asset, and transmit the portion of the mediaasset to the identified user equipment.

For example, each user who is watching the romance movie, as describedabove, may have an associated smart phone. The media guidanceapplication may detect those smart phones and identify which of thesmart phones is associated with the user who is disregarding the mediaasset. The media guidance application may transmit the stored portion ofthe romance movie to the identified smart phone. It should be noted thatthe media guidance application may transmit the stored portion as it isbeing transmitted to the other users. Alternatively or additionally, themedia guidance application may transmit the stored portion of the mediaasset after it has been fully recorded or stored on the user equipmentthat is presenting the media asset to the user.

In some embodiments, it may be useful to record the full media asset ifthe device associated with the user (e.g., the user's smart phone) wherethe stored portion is to be transmitted to is not able to play back thetype of media that is associated with the media asset. Thus, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the identified user equipmentis not able to play the type of media associated with the media asset.In response to determining that the identified user equipment is notable to play the type of media associated with the media asset, themedia guidance application may identify, based on the user's profile,another user equipment associated with the user that is able to recordthe media asset, and schedule, on the identified user equipment, themedia asset for recording.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that theportion of the media asset is in a high-definition format, but theuser's smart phone is not able to play media in a high definitionformat. Therefore, the media guidance application may determine, basedon the user's profile, that a DVR is associated with the user (e.g., aDVR that is located in the user's home). The media guidance applicationmay instruct the DVR to search for the media asset within its programlistings (e.g., broadcast program listings) and record the media asset.Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application maydetermine that the media asset is available on demand and prompt theuser, when the user is consuming media from the DVR, as to whether theuser would like to consume the media asset.

It should be noted that the media guidance application, when the userattempts to consume the media asset recorded on the DVR, as describedabove, may present an option to the user to start the media asset from apoint in time, within the media asset, when the user starteddisregarding the media asset. Additionally or alternatively, the mediaguidance application may present an option to the user to watch only theportion of the media asset that was playing while the user wasdisregarding the media asset.

In some embodiments, it may be useful to record the media asset forlater viewing in spite of determining that the user is not interested inthe media asset, for example, if the user wants to consume the mediaasset so the user is able to discuss the media asset with his or herfriends. Therefore, the media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the user is in the second subset, detect a plurality ofaccessible user equipment, identify a user equipment of the plurality ofuser equipment that is associated with the user who is disregarding themedia asset, and generate for display a prompt on the identified userequipment to schedule the media asset for recording. As described above,the media guidance application may determine that the user is notinterested in the movie. However, the media guidance application maydetect that a number of users have associated smart phones. The mediaguidance application may identify the user's smart phone and generatefor display an option to schedule the media asset for recording, forexample, on a DVR associated with the user. The user may, of course,reject the option if the user does not want to consume the media assetlater.

In some embodiments, it may be useful to not detect that the user isdisregarding the media asset under certain circumstances. The mediaguidance application may detect that the user of the plurality of usersis disregarding the media asset by detecting that the user's eyes arenot turned in the direction of the media asset. The media guidanceapplication may activate a timer that tracks a period of time that theuser's eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset, anddetermine, based on the timer, that the period of time for which theuser's eyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset isgreater than a threshold. In response to determining, based on thetimer, that the period of time for which the user's eyes are not turnedin the direction of the media asset is greater than the threshold, themedia guidance application may detect that the user is disregarding themedia asset.

For example, it may not be useful to detect that a user is disregardingthe media asset in instances when a user was distracted for a shortamount of time (e.g., 5 seconds). Thus, the media guidance applicationmay only detect that the user is disregarding the media asset when theuser has turned away from the media asset for longer than a thresholdtime. The media guidance application may determine the threshold basedon how the user is disregarding the media asset. For example, thethreshold may be different for when the user leaves the room versus forwhen the user is using his smart phone.

In some embodiments, it may not be useful to store the portion of themedia asset because the user has not missed anything important or theuser has not been disregarding the media asset for a significant amountof time. The media guidance application may, when storing the portion ofthe media asset starting at a time when the user started disregardingthe media asset, detect that the user is no longer disregarding themedia asset, and determine whether the user was disregarding the mediaasset for a time period that is less than a threshold time period. Inresponse to determining that the user was disregarding the media assetfor the time period that is less than the threshold time period, themedia guidance application may delete the stored portion of the mediaasset. In some embodiments, it may not be useful to store the portion ofthe media asset if that portion is an advertisement. Thus, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the portion of the mediaasset is an advertisement and if so, refrain from storing the portion.

For example, the media guidance application may determine that the userstopped disregarding the media asset after about 5 seconds because theuser looked at her smart phone. The media guidance application maydetermine that the user was disregarding the media asset for less than athreshold time period. The threshold may be determined based on a timelength or the threshold may be based on whether an important event inthe media asset occurred or started to occur while the user wasdisregarding the media asset. The media guidance application maydetermine an existence of an important event based on metadataassociated with the media asset or based on a scene recognitionalgorithm. If the threshold is not met, the media guidance applicationmay delete the stored portion of the media asset.

In some embodiments, it may be useful to have the user make thedetermination as to whether to delete the stored portion of the mediaasset. The media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the user was disregarding the media asset for the time period thatis greater than the threshold time period, prompt the user as to whetherto delete the portion of the media asset. For example, if the thresholdis 30 seconds and the user has been disregarding the media asset for 45seconds, the media guidance application may give the user the optionwhether to delete the portion of the media asset. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may generate for display an option toconsume the portion of the media asset. It should be noted that theoption may be generated for display in addition to or instead ofprompting the user as to whether to delete the portion of the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may prompt the useras to whether to delete the portion of the media asset at a mobile userequipment associated with the user. As described above, in connectionwith identifying a device associated with the user, the media guidanceapplication may identify, for example, a smart phone associated with theuser and prompt the user at that device.

In some embodiments, it may be useful to play back the stored portion ofthe media asset at an increased speed so that the user may “catch up” tothe current time in the media asset more quickly. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the media asset is an audio-visual mediaasset and that the portion of the media asset does not contain dialogue.In response to determining that the portion of the media asset does notcontain dialogue, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay the video of the portion of the media asset at an increasedspeed. For example, if there is no dialogue in a movie, the user may“catch up” to the video portion at an increased speed, as the user wouldnot need to hear what is said.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an illustration of how different users may be disregardingthe media asset, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen showingdifferent options for the user related to the stored portion of themedia content, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative device, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative process that may be used to efficientlyprovide a “catch-up” mechanism to a viewer of a media asset, inaccordance with some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative process involved in determining which ofa plurality of users are interested in a media asset being consumed andwhich are not, in accordance with some embodiments of this disclosure;and

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative process involved in starting transmissionof the stored portion of the media asset to a device associated with theuser who is disregarding the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

As referred to herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated asa result of. For example, a first action being performed in response toa second action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action.

As referred to herein, the term “directly in response to” refers tocaused by. For example, a first action being performed directly inresponse to a second action may not include interstitial steps betweenthe first action and the second action.

Systems and methods are described herein for efficiently “catching up” auser who is interested in a media asset when that user has missed aportion of the media asset while consuming the media asset together withother people. It should be noted that these systems and methods will bedescribed in a context of a media guidance application. However, aperson skilled in the art will understand that these systems and methodsmay be implemented independently of a media guidance application.

The media guidance application may detect that more than one person isconsuming a media asset and may determine, based on a respective profileof each person, whether a particular person is interested in the mediaasset. Those users who are interested in the media asset may be placedinto one group and those users who are not may be placed into anothergroup. When the media guidance application detects that one of the usersis disregarding the media asset, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the user is interested in the media asset based onwhich group the user was placed into. If the media guidance applicationdetermines that the user is interested in the media asset, the mediaguidance application may store the missed portion of the media asset,and if the media guidance application determines that the user is notinterested in the media asset, the media guidance application mayrefrain from storing that portion of the media asset.

FIG. 1 shows an illustration of a display screen representing howdifferent users may be disregarding the media asset. Building 100 isdepicted as having two rooms, large room 102 and small room 104. Largeroom 102 is depicted as having user equipment 106 within visual field108 of user 110. User 120 is depicted using mobile device 124 withinvisual field 122 of user 120. User 112 is depicted having a conversationwith user 114 with element 116, depicted as a speech bubble,corresponding to user 112, and element 118 corresponding to user 114,depicted as a speech bubble. User 126 is depicted in small room 104,away from user equipment 106. User 126 is depicted holding phone 128.

User equipment 106 may include control circuitry (e.g., controlcircuitry 504, discussed further below with reference to FIGS. 3-6 )that executes a media guidance application. The media guidanceapplication may include a mechanism for efficiently catching up users byrestricting initialization of a catch-up mechanism to users who areinterested in a media asset. As referred to herein, the term catching uprefers to executing a mechanism to play back to a user a portion of themedia asset that the user has missed. User equipment 106 may have allthe same capabilities of user television equipment 602, user computerequipment 604, and wireless user communications device 606 described inrelation to FIG. 6 below.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect that aplurality of users are consuming a media asset from the same userequipment (e.g., user equipment 106). For example, the media guidanceapplication may be implemented on a device (e.g., a set-top box) thatincludes a camera or another suitable user input interface as describedin later detail below. Alternatively or additionally, a camera may beassociated with a set-top box (e.g., connected via a USB port or via awireless protocol such as Wifi or Bluetooth). The camera may recordimages of the room 102. The media guidance application may receive theimages and perform image pattern recognition on the images. Based on theresults of the pattern recognition, the media guidance application maydetermine how many people are in the room. The media guidanceapplication may instruct the camera to continue recording the room andattempt to identify each user based on the user's facial features (e.g.,through a facial recognition algorithm).

It should be noted that other methods of detecting users who areconsuming a media asset may be used. For example, the media guidanceapplication may require each user to log in to the system by, forexample, entering a password or via thumbprint identification.Furthermore, the media guidance application may transmit the images to aremote server in order to detect that a plurality of users are in theroom. The remote server may be located outside the user's home (e.g., atmedia guidance data source 618 or media guidance content source 616).

The media guidance application may determine, for each respective userof the plurality of users, whether a respective user is interested inthe media asset. The media guidance application may make thedetermination by comparing data of a respective profile of therespective user to metadata of the media asset and, in response todetermining that the data of the respective profile matches the metadataof the media asset, determining that the respective user is interestedin the media asset. The media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the data of the respective profile does not match themetadata of the media asset, determine that the respective user is notinterested in the media asset.

For example, the media guidance application may retrieve a profileassociated with users 110, 112, 114, and 126. The media guidanceapplication may also retrieve metadata associated with the media assetbeing generated for display by user equipment 106. For example, themedia guidance application may determine, based on the metadata, thatthe media asset has an associated genre of comedy. The media guidanceapplication may then compare the genre of comedy to data in each profileassociated with users 110, 112, 114, and 126 to determine whether eachuser likes comedy. The user profile may include a listing of all genresand a scaled value (e.g., one to ten) indicating how strongly each userprefers a specific genre. Thus, if the media guidance applicationdetermines, based on the user's profile, that comedy is associated witha value of 9, the media guidance application may determine that the useris interested in comedies. If the media guidance application determines,based on the user's profile, that comedy is associated with a value of2, the media guidance application may determine that the user is notinterested in comedies.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether a specific user is interested in comedies based on the mediaassets that the user has consumed as indicated by the user's profile.Thus, if the media guidance application determines that the userconsumed a large number of comedies in comparison with other genres, themedia guidance application may determine that the user is interested incomedies. Using either of these methods, or a combination of both, themedia guidance application may, for example, determine that users 110,120, and 126 are interested in the media asset while users 112 and 114are not interested in the media asset.

The media guidance application may identify a first subset of theplurality of users including each respective user who is interested inthe media asset and identify a second subset of the plurality of usersincluding each respective user who is not interested in the media asset.For example, the media guidance application may place users interestedin the media asset (e.g., users 110, 120, and 126, as determined fromthe example above) in one group and users who are not interested in themedia asset (e.g., users 112 and 114, as determined from the exampleabove).

The media guidance application may detect that a user of the pluralityof users is disregarding the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect that user 120 is no longer looking inthe direction of the media asset by determining (e.g., by using acamera, as described above) that the media asset is not in the user'svisual field (e.g., user's visual field may be user's visual field 122).Additionally or alternatively, the media guidance application may detectthat smart phone 124 is in user's visual field 122. Based on one or bothof these determinations, the media guidance application may detect thatthe user is disregarding the media asset.

The media guidance application may also detect via use of a microphonethat users 112 and 114 are speaking as indicated by elements 116 and118. The device that implements the media guidance application mayinclude a microphone or a microphone may be connected to such a device(e.g., via a USB port, or through Wifi or Bluetooth protocols). Based onthe detection of speech, the media guidance application may determinethat users 112 and 114 are disregarding the media asset. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may use a combination of acamera and a microphone to determine that users 112 and 114 are speakingto each other. For example, if the media guidance application detects,through a camera, that users 112 and 114 are facing each other andthrough a microphone that both are talking, the media guidanceapplication may determine that both users are disregarding the mediaasset. The media guidance application may also determine that a user isdisregarding the media asset if the user is no longer in the room. Forexample, the media guidance application may detect that user 126 mayhave left the room to talk on phone 128.

The media guidance application may determine whether the user isidentified in the first subset or in the second subset. For example, themedia guidance application may perform a look-up of one group thatincludes all users who are interested in the media asset and the othergroup that includes all users who are not interested in the media asset.For example, as described above, if the media guidance applicationdetermines that user 120 is disregarding the media asset, the mediaguidance application may determine that user 120 is in a subset of userswho are interested in the media asset. However, if the media guidanceapplication determines that user 112 is disregarding the media asset,the media guidance application may determine that user 112 is in asubset of users who are not interested in the media asset.

In response to determining that the user is identified in the firstsubset, the media guidance application may store a portion of the mediaasset starting at a time when the user started disregarding the mediaasset. For example, if the media guidance application determines user120 is disregarding the media asset, the media guidance application maystart recording the media asset from the point in time when the mediaguidance application detected that the user started disregarding themedia asset.

In response to determining that the user is in the second subset, themedia guidance application may refrain from storing the portion of themedia asset starting at the time when the user started disregarding themedia asset. For example, if the media guidance application determinesthat user 112 is disregarding the media asset, the media guidanceapplication may not start recording the media asset and instead noaction is taken.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store theportion of the media asset at a device associated with the user that isdisregarding the media asset (e.g., a smart phone associated with theuser). This may be especially useful for enabling the user to catch upwithout forcing other users to review the same portion of the mediaasset that they have already consumed. The media guidance applicationmay, when storing the portion of the media asset starting at the timewhen the user started disregarding the media asset, detect a pluralityof accessible user equipment, each corresponding to a respective user,identify a user equipment of the plurality of user equipment that isassociated with the user who is disregarding the media asset, andtransmit the portion of the media asset to the identified userequipment.

For example, the media guidance application may be residing on a devicethat includes or can access other devices through a wireless connectionor multiple wireless connections (e.g., through a Wifi Protocol orBluetooth protocol). The media guidance application may scan for otherdevices that are able to wirelessly communicate with the device wherethe media guidance application is playing the media asset. The mediaguidance application may detect all the devices that are within rangeand identify the device that is associated with the user who isdisregarding the media asset by, for example, comparing anidentification associated with each device that the media guidanceapplication detects with device identification of devices stored in theuser's profile. If one of the identifications matches with a deviceidentification in the user's profile, the media guidance application mayidentify the device that is associated with the user who is disregardingthe media asset. The media guidance application may transmit the storedportion of the media asset via the same wireless connection to theidentified device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thebest connection for transmitting the stored portion of the media asset,if multiple connections are available between the identified device andthe device from where the media guidance application is playing themedia asset. For example, if two connections are available (e.g., Wifiand Bluetooth), the media guidance application may choose the faster oneor the less utilized one. The media guidance application may execute atest of a connection prior to transmitting the stored media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the identified device is able to play the media asset and ifnot, the media guidance application may record the media asset onanother device. The media guidance application may determine whether theidentified user equipment is able to play a type of media associatedwith the media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayquery the identified device for a list of formats that the devicesupports, and, based on the list, determine whether the identifieddevice is able to play the media asset. In response to determining thatthe identified user equipment is not able to play the type of mediaassociated with the media asset, the media guidance application may takethe following actions.

The media guidance application may identify, based on the user'sprofile, another user equipment associated with the user that is able torecord the media asset, and schedule, on the identified another userequipment, the media asset for recording. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve from the profile associated with theuser who is disregarding the media asset, a list of devices associatedwith that user. The media guidance application may query those devicesto determine which device is able to record the media asset. Forexample, one of the devices may be a set-top box which is able to recordthe media asset. The media guidance application may schedule on theidentified another user equipment, the media asset for recording. Forexample, the media guidance application may schedule a recording for themedia asset on the identified set-top box.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to record the media asset thatthe user is disregarding in spite of detecting that the user is notinterested in the media asset, for example, because the user may want toconsume the media asset to discuss it with his friends. The mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the user is inthe second subset, detect a plurality of accessible user equipment,identify a user equipment of the plurality of user equipment thatassociated with the user who is disregarding the media asset, andgenerate for display a prompt on the identified user equipment toschedule the media asset for recording.

For example, the media guidance application may detect accessibledevices in range in the same manner described above (e.g., by connectingto these devices through a wireless connection). The media guidanceapplication may then, as described above, compare the deviceidentification associated with each detected device with devices in theuser's profile and transmit a message to the user's device to prompt theuser to record the media asset.

It may be useful to refrain from determining that a user is disregardingthe media asset if the user gets distracted for a short period of timeas the user has likely not missed anything important. The media guidanceapplication may, when detecting that the user of the plurality of usersis disregarding the media asset, detect that the user's eyes are notturned in the direction of the media asset, activate a timer that tracksa period of time that the user's eyes are not turned in the direction ofthe media asset and determine, based on the timer, that the period oftime for which the user's eyes are not turned in the direction of themedia asset is greater than a threshold. In response to determining,based on the time, that the period of time for which the user's eyes arenot turned in the direction of the media asset is greater than thethreshold, the media guidance application may detect that the user isdisregarding the media asset

For example, the media guidance application may track all the users witha camera (as described above). Based on the images received from thecamera, the media guidance application may determine that a user hasturned away from the media asset. The media guidance application maystart a timer that will track how long the user is turned away from themedia asset. When a threshold amount of time passes and the user isstill turned away from the media asset, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the user is disregarding the media asset. It shouldbe noted that the media guidance application may start storing theportion of the media asset as soon as the user turns away from the mediaasset and may delete any stored portion if the threshold is not met.

In some embodiments, it may be useful to store portions of a media assetthat are longer than a threshold length. Thus, the media guidanceapplication may detect that the user is no longer disregarding the mediaasset and determine whether the user was disregarding the media assetfor a time period that is less than a threshold time period. In responseto determining that the user was disregarding the media asset for thetime period that is less than the threshold time period, the mediaguidance application may delete the stored portion of the media asset.

For example, the media guidance application may be tracking the user'seyes and detect that the user has turned back to the media asset. Themedia guidance application may have been tracking an amount of time thatthe user has been disregarding the media asset (e.g., using a timer).The media guidance application may retrieve a threshold value frommemory and compare to the timer. If the timer is showing an amount oftime that is less than the threshold, the media guidance application maydelete the stored portion of the media asset.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the user wasdisregarding the media asset for the time period that is greater thanthe threshold time period, the media guidance application may prompt theuser as to whether to delete the portion of the media asset. Forexample, it may be useful to give a user a choice whether to delete thestored portion of the media asset allowing more flexibility in thesystem. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generatefor display an option to consume the portion of the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may generate an option to view apart of a movie that the user missed while talking on the phone. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may prompt a user at amobile user equipment associated with the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate for display a prompt on a smart phoneassociated with the user.

Screen 200 of FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a displayscreen showing different options for the user related to the storedportion of the media content. User-selectable option 202 enables theuser to delete the recorded portion of the media asset. When the mediaguidance application receives a user-selection of option 202, the mediaguidance application may delete the saved portion of the media asset ifthe media asset is stored locally on the depicted device. However, ifthe missed portion of the media asset is stored on another device, themedia guidance application on the depicted device may transmit a deletecommand to the device where the portion of the media asset is stored.

User-selectable option 204 enables the user to play the saved portion ofthe media asset. It should be noted that the media guidance applicationmay play the stored portion if the stored portion is stored on thedevice depicted or stream the stored portion from another device (e.g.,the device that is playing the media asset for the plurality of users).In some embodiments, the media guidance application may disable option204 until the stored portion of the media asset has been downloaded tothe depicted device.

User-selectable option 206 enables a user to play saved content at anincreased speed. This may be useful when the media content isaudio-visual and doesn't have any dialogue. This way the user can havealmost a digest of the video without missing any important conversationswithin the media asset. The media guidance application may determinethat the media asset is an audio-visual media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may make that determination based on theformat of the media asset. The media guidance application may determinethat the portion of the media asset does not contain dialogue. The mediaguidance application may perform this determination by using audiorecognition algorithms to detect whether characters are speaking. Inresponse to determining that the portion of the media asset does notcontain dialogue, the media guidance application may generate fordisplay the video of the portion of the media asset at an increasedspeed.

User-selectable option 208 enables the user to play the portion of themedia asset on another device. For example, as discussed above, themedia guidance application may detect all devices accessible to theuser, in the user's vicinity (e.g., all devices that can be accessed viaa wireless network (e.g., Wifi, Bluetooth). The media guidanceapplication may then bring up a list to the user to select a devicewhether the user prefers that the portion of the media asset be played.Upon the selection of the device, the media guidance application mayplay the missed portion of the media asset on that device.

FIGS. 3-4 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 3-4 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 3-4 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 3 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 300arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 300 may include grid 302 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 304, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 306, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 302 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 308, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 310. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 310 may be provided inprogram information region 312. Region 312 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 302 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 314, recorded content listing 316, andInternet content listing 318. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 300 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings314, 316, and 318 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 302 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 302. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 320. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 320.)

Display 300 may also include video region 322, and options region 326.Video region 322 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 322 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 302. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 326 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 326 may be part of display 300 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 326 may concern features related to program listings in grid 302or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 6 . Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 4 . Video mosaic display 400 includes selectable options 402 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 400, television listings option 404 isselected, thus providing listings 406, 408, 410, and 412 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 400 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 408 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 414 and text portion 416.Media portion 414 and/or text portion 416 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 414 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 400 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 406 islarger than listings 408, 410, and 412), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 5 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 500. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 6 .User equipment device 500 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 502. I/O path 502 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 504, which includesprocessing circuitry 506 and storage 508. Control circuitry 504 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 502. I/O path 502 may connect control circuitry 504 (andspecifically processing circuitry 506) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 504 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 506. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 504 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 508). Specifically, control circuitry 504 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 504 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 504 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 504 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 6 ). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 508 thatis part of control circuitry 504. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 508 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 6 , may be used to supplementstorage 508 or instead of storage 508.

Control circuitry 504 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 504 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 500. Circuitry 504 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 508 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 500, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 508.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 504 using user inputinterface 510. User input interface 510 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 512 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500. For example, display 512 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 510may be integrated with or combined with display 512. Display 512 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 512 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 512 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 512.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry504. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 504.Speakers 514 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 512 may be played throughspeakers 514. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers514.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 500. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage508), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 504 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 508 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 504 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 510. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 510 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 500 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 500. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 504 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 504) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 500. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 500.Equipment device 500 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 510 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 500 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 510.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 500 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 504). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 504 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 504. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 504. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 500 of FIG. 5 can be implemented in system 600 ofFIG. 6 as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,wireless user communications device 606, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 5 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, or awireless user communications device 606. For example, user televisionequipment 602 may, like some user computer equipment 604, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 604 may, like some television equipment 602, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 604, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 606.

In system 600, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless user communicationsdevice 606) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 614.Namely, user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, andwireless user communications device 606 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 614 via communications paths 608, 610, and 612, respectively.Communications network 614 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 608, 610, and 612 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 612 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 6 it is awireless path and paths 608 and 610 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 608, 610, and 612, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 614.

System 600 includes content source 616 and media guidance data source618 coupled to communications network 614 via communication paths 620and 622, respectively. Paths 620 and 622 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 608, 610,and 612. Communications with the content source 616 and media guidancedata source 618 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 616 and 618 withuser equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 are shown as throughcommunications network 614, in some embodiments, sources 616 and 618 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 608, 610, and 612.

Content source 616 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 616 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 616 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 616 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 618 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 618may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 618 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 618 mayprovide user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 508, and executedby control circuitry 504 of a user equipment device 500. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 504 of user equipment device 500and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 618) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 618), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 618 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices602, 604, and 606 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 600 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 6 .

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 614.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 616 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 602 and user computer equipment 604may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 606 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 614. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 616 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 618. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, and wirelessuser communications device 606. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 604 or wireless usercommunications device 606 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 604. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 614. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 5 .

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative process 700 that may be used toefficiently provide a catch-up mechanism to a viewer of a media asset.At 702, the media guidance application detects (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) that aplurality of users are consuming a media asset from one user equipment.The media guidance application may perform the detection using methodssimilar to those described in relation to FIG. 1 . For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented on one of devices 602,604, and 606. The device may have access to a camera. The camera may bebuilt into the device or connected to it (e.g., via a wired connectionsuch as USB or a wireless connection such Wifi or Bluetooth). The mediaguidance application may use an edge detection algorithm to determinehow many users are in a room and track them as they move around theroom. The media guidance application may make the determination locallyor transmit the images to another device for processing. The device maybe located at the user's home or remotely (e.g. at media content source616 or media guidance data source 618). This device may be reachable viacommunications network 614.

At 704, the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ), for eachrespective user of the plurality of users, whether a respective user isinterested in the media asset. The media guidance application makes thisdetermination by steps 706 and 708. At 706, the media guidanceapplication compares (e.g., via control circuitry 504, as discussed withreference to FIGS. 3-6 ) data of a respective profile of the respectiveuser to metadata of the media asset. The media guidance application mayperform the detection using methods similar to those described inrelation to FIG. 1 . For example, the user's profile may include a listof keywords that represent the user's interests in media. The mediaguidance application may compare those keywords to the metadata of themedia asset to determine if matches exist.

At 708, in response to determining that the data of the respectiveprofile matches the metadata of the media asset, the media guidanceapplication determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504, as discussedwith reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) that the respective user is interested inthe media asset. At 710, in response to determining that the data of therespective profile does not match the metadata of the media asset, themedia guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504,as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) that the respective user isnot interested in the media asset.

At 712, the media guidance application identifies (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) a first subsetof the plurality of users that includes each respective user that isinterested in the media asset. The media guidance application may createa data structure in storage 508 and store a list of pointers in the datastructure such that each pointer is pointing to a user that isinterested in the media asset.

At 714, the media guidance application identifies (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) a secondsubset of the plurality of users that includes each respective user thatis not interested in the media asset. The media guidance application maycreate a data structure in storage 508 and store a list of pointers inthe data structure such that each pointer is pointing to a user that isnot interested in the media asset.

At 716, the media guidance application detects (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) that a user ofthe plurality of users is disregarding the media asset. Various methodsof detection have been described above in relation to FIG. 1 . At 718,the media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) whether the user isidentified in the first subset or in the second subset. The mediaguidance application may make that determination by iterating throughthe data structure described in relation to step 712 and 714 anddetermining which data structure includes a pointer to a user'srepresentation in memory.

At 720, in response to determining that the user is identified in thefirst subset, the media guidance application stores (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 in storage 508, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 )a portion of the media asset starting at a time when the user starteddisregarding the media asset. At 722, in response to determining thatthe user is in the second subset, the media guidance applicationrefrains (e.g., via control circuitry 504, as discussed with referenceto FIGS. 3-6 ) from storing the portion of the media asset starting atthe time when the user started disregarding the media asset.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 7 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the process of FIG. 7 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 7may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 5-6 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process. Moreover, steps of process 700 may be used in conjunctionwith any step of process 800 and 900. Steps of process 700 may beomitted or replaced with any step of process 800 or 900.

FIG. 8 depicts illustrative process 800 involved in determining which ofa plurality of users are interested in a media asset being consumed andwhich are not. At 802, the media guidance application detects (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) that aplurality of people are consuming a media asset. The media guidanceapplication may perform the detection with any of the methods describedin relation to FIG. 1 . At 804, the media guidance applicationdetermines whether all people have been identified. If the mediaguidance application determines that all people have been identified,process 800 moves to 802 to continue scanning the room and determiningif new people have been detected. As described above, in relation toFIG. 1 , the media guidance application may use a camera to make thedetection. If some people have not yet been identified, the mediaguidance application at 806, selects (e.g., via control circuitry 504)an unidentified person.

At 808, the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) whether theunidentified user has an associated user profile. The media guidanceapplication may make the determination by using face recognitionalgorithms to detect different users based on their facial features. Forexample, the media guidance application may use the camera to take adigital photograph of each user and send these files to a remote serverwhere the photographs may be analyzed and compared to photos located inthe users' profiles. When a match is found the correct us is identifiedand matched to the correct profile. Additionally or alternatively, thiskind of identification may be done locally by the media guidanceapplication. For example, the media guidance application may compare thephotographs that have been taken of the users consuming the media assetwith photographs located in user profiles local on the system. Thosedigital photographs that are not matched locally may be sent to a remoteserver for further processing. A remote server may have a broader rangeof profiles that are associated with users, for example.

If the unidentified user does not have an associated user profile,process 800 moves to step 820, where a new user profile is created forthe user and a the digital photograph is stored in the profile. Uponcreation of the new profile, process 800 moves to 804. If the mediaguidance application determines that the unidentified user has anassociated user profile process 800 moves to step 810, where the mediaguidance application retrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 504), fromthe profile media asset characteristics that are of interest to theuser. The media guidance application may retrieve, for example, a listof genres that the user prefers or a list show titles. At 812, the mediaguidance application retrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 504, asdiscussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) metadata associated with themedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may retrievefrom storage 508 the metadata. Additionally or alternatively the mediaguidance application may retrieve the metadata from media content source616 or media guidance data source 618.

At 814, the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) whether themetadata matches the media asset characteristics that are of interest tothe user. The media guidance application may perform a keywordcomparison between the media asset characteristics and the words in themetadata of the media asset. If the media guidance applicationdetermines that the metadata matches the media asset characteristicsthat are of interested to the user, process 800 moves to 816 where theuser is added to Group 1. If the media guidance application determinesthat the metadata does not match the media asset characteristics thatare of interested to the user, process 800 moves to 818 where the useris added to Group 2. Thereafter, process 800 moves to step 804.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 8 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the process of FIG. 8 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 8may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 5-6 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process. Moreover, steps of process 800 may be used in conjunctionwith any step of process 700 and 900. Steps of process 800 may beomitted or replaced with any step of process 700 or 900.

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative process involved in starting transmissionof the stored portion of the media asset to a device associated with theuser that is disregarding the media asset. At 902, the media guidanceapplication (e.g., via control circuitry 504, as discussed withreference to FIGS. 3-6 ) detects that a user is disregarding a mediaasset that is currently playing. Various methods of detecting that auser is disregarding the media asset have been described in relation toFIG. 1 and may be used at this step. At 904, the media guidanceapplication, identifies (e.g., via control circuitry 504, as discussedwith reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) the user that is disregarding the mediaasset. Methods of identifying users have been discussed in relation toFIG. 1 and FIG. 7 . Any of those methods may be used at this step.

At 906, the media guidance application detects (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504) detects a plurality of available devices. Methods ofdetecting available devices have been described above. For example, themedia guidance application may scan for wireless devices available on aWi-Fi network or a Bluetooth network. At 908, the media guidanceapplication identifies (e.g., via control circuitry 504, as discussedwith reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) a device of the plurality of availabledevices that is associated with the user. As described above, the mediaguidance application may make the identification by comparing anidentification of each available device with an identification of eachdevice associated with the user's profile.

At 910, the media guidance application determines (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) whether theuser is in Group 1 or Group 2. The groups may have been formed as partof process 800 of FIG. 8 . If the user is in group 1 (e.g., the group ofusers that are interested in the media asset), the media guidanceapplication, at 912, starts transmitting (e.g., via control circuitry504 through I/O path 502, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) thestored portion of the media asset to the device of the plurality ofavailable devices that is associated with the user. If the user is notin Group 1, the media guidance application generates for display (e.g.,via control circuitry 504, as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3-6 ) onthe device associated with the user, an option to receive the storedportion of the media asset.

It is contemplated that the descriptions of FIG. 9 may be used with anyother embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the descriptionsdescribed in relation to the process of FIG. 9 may be done inalternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of thisdisclosure. Furthermore, it should be noted that the process of FIG. 9may be implemented on a combination of appropriately configured softwareand hardware, and that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 5-6 could be used to implement one or more portions ofthe process. Moreover, steps of process 900 may be used in conjunctionwith any step of process 700 and 800. Steps of process 900 may beomitted or replaced with any step of process 700 or 800.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

1-51. (canceled)
 52. A method for providing a catch-up mechanism, themethod comprising: detecting that a first user of a plurality of usersis disregarding a media asset that is currently playing; identifying thefirst user; identifying a device associated with the first user;determining whether the first user is a part of a group of users thatare interested in the media asset currently playing; in response todetermining that the first user is a part of a group of users that areinterested in the media asset, transmitting a stored portion of themedia asset to the device associated with the first user; and inresponse to determining that the first user is not a part of the groupof users that are interested in the media asset, generating for displayon the device associated with the first user an option to receive thestored portion of the media asset, wherein the stored portion of themedia asset includes a portion of the media asset that was disregardedby the first user.
 53. The method of claim 52, wherein detecting thatthe first user of the plurality of users is disregarding the media assetcomprises: detecting that the first user's eyes are not turned in thedirection of the media asset; activating a timer that tracks a period oftime that the first user's eyes are not turned in the direction of themedia asset; determining, based on the timer, that the period of timefor which the first user's eyes are not turned in the direction of themedia asset is greater than a threshold; and in response to determining,based on the timer, that the period of time for which the first user'seyes are not turned in the direction of the media asset is greater thanthe threshold, detecting that the first user is disregarding the mediaasset.
 54. The method of claim 52, wherein identifying the first usercomprises: performing image recognition on an image representing theplurality of users consuming the media asset; identifying a profilecorresponding to each of the plurality of users; determining a visualfield of the first user; and detecting, based on the determined visualfield of the first user, whether the first user is disregarding themedia asset.
 55. The method of claim 52, wherein identifying a deviceassociated with the first user comprises: using a media guidanceapplication to scan for wireless devices available on a Wi-Fi network ora Bluetooth network.
 56. The method of claim 52, wherein determiningwhether the first user is a part of the group of users that areinterested in the media asset comprises: comparing metadata associatedwith the media asset to a profile corresponding to each of the pluralityof users; determining, based on the comparing, users that are interestedin the media asset and users that are not interested in the media asset;generating a subset group of users that are interested in the mediaasset; and generating a different subset group of users that are notinterested in the media asset; and in response to determining that thefirst user is interested in the media asset, selecting the first user tobe placed in the subset group of users that are interested in the mediaasset.
 57. The method of claim 52, further comprising: receiving thetransmitted stored portion of the media asset at the device associatedwith the first user; receiving a request to play the media asset; and inresponse to receiving the request, causing to be played the storedportion of the media asset.
 58. The method of claim 52, furthercomprising: in response to determining that the first user is interestedin the media asset but is currently disregarding the media asset,automatically storing a portion of the media asset in a memory.
 59. Themethod of claim 52, wherein generating for display on the deviceassociated with the first user an option to receive the stored portionof the media asset comprises: displaying a prompt with a user-selectableoption to play the media asset; displaying a prompt with auser-selectable option to play the media asset on a different device;and displaying a prompt with a user-selectable option to delete thestored portion of the media asset from a memory.
 60. The method of claim52, further comprising: determining whether a first device associatedwith the first user is capable of playing a type of media associatedwith the media asset; and in response to determining that the firstdevice associated with the first user is not capable of playing the typeof media associated with the media asset: determining a second devicethat is capable of playing the media asset and is associated with thefirst user of the first device; and causing to be transmitted theportion of the media asset to the second device.
 61. The method of claim52, further comprising: determining that the media asset is anaudio-visual media asset; determining that the stored portion of themedia asset does not contain dialogue; and in response to determiningthat the stored portion of the media asset does not contain dialogue,generating for display the video of the portion of the media asset thatwas recorded at an increased speed.
 62. A system for providing acatch-up mechanism, the system comprising: a memory; and controlcircuitry configured to: detect that a first user of a plurality ofusers is disregarding a media asset that is currently playing; identifythe first user; identify a device associated with the first user;determine whether the first user is a part of a group of users that areinterested in the media asset currently playing; in response todetermining that the first user is a part of a group of users that areinterested in the media asset, transmitting a stored portion of themedia asset from the memory to the device associated with the firstuser; and in response to determining that the first user is not a partof the group of users that are interested in the media asset, generatingfor display on the device associated with the first user an option toreceive the stored portion of the media asset from the memory, whereinthe stored portion of the media asset includes a portion of the mediaasset that was disregarded by the first user.
 63. The system of claim62, wherein the control circuitry is configured to detect that the firstuser of the plurality of users is disregarding the media asset by:detecting that the first user's eyes are not turned in the direction ofthe media asset; activating a timer that tracks a period of time thatthe first user's eyes are not turned in the direction of the mediaasset; determining, based on the timer, that the period of time forwhich the first user's eyes are not turned in the direction of the mediaasset is greater than a threshold; and in response to determining, basedon the timer, that the period of time for which the first user's eyesare not turned in the direction of the media asset is greater than thethreshold, detecting that the first user is disregarding the mediaasset.
 64. The system of claim 62, wherein the control circuitry isconfigured to identify the first user by: performing image recognitionon an image representing the plurality of users consuming the mediaasset; identifying a profile corresponding to each of the plurality ofusers; determining a visual field of the first user; and detecting,based on the determined visual field of the first user, whether thefirst user is disregarding the media asset.
 65. The system of claim 62,wherein the control circuitry is configured to identify a deviceassociated with the first user by: using a media guidance application toscan for wireless devices available on a Wi-Fi network or a Bluetoothnetwork.
 66. The system of claim 62, wherein the control circuitry isconfigured to determine whether the first user is a part of the group ofusers that are interested in the media asset by: comparing metadataassociated with the media asset to a profile corresponding to each ofthe plurality of users; determining, based on the comparing, users thatare interested in the media asset and users that are not interested inthe media asset; generating a subset group of users that are interestedin the media asset; and generating a different subset group of usersthat are not interested in the media asset; and in response todetermining that the first user is interested in the media asset,selecting the first user to be placed in the subset group of users thatare interested in the media asset.
 67. The system of claim 62, whereinthe control circuitry is further configured to: receive the transmittedstored portion of the media asset at the device associated with thefirst user; receive a request to play the media asset; and in responseto receiving the request, cause to be played the stored portion of themedia asset.
 68. The system of claim 62, wherein the control circuitryis further configured to: in response to determining that the first useris interested in the media asset but is currently disregarding the mediaasset, automatically store a portion of the media asset in the memory.69. The system of claim 62, wherein the control circuitry is configuredto generate for display on the device associated with the first user anoption to receive the stored portion of the media asset by: displaying aprompt with a user-selectable option to play the media asset; displayinga prompt with a user-selectable option to play the media asset on adifferent device; and displaying a prompt with a user-selectable optionto delete the stored portion of the media asset from a memory.
 70. Thesystem of claim 62, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto: determine whether a first device associated with the first user iscapable of playing a type of media associated with the media asset; andin response to determining that the first device associated with thefirst user is not capable of playing the type of media associated withthe media asset: determine a second device that is capable of playingthe media asset and is associated with the first user of the firstdevice; and cause to be transmitted the portion of the media asset tothe second device.
 71. The system of claim 62, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to: determine that the media asset is anaudio-visual media asset; determine that the stored portion of the mediaasset does not contain dialogue; and in response to determining that thestored portion of the media asset does not contain dialogue, generatefor display the video of the portion of the media asset that wasrecorded at an increased speed.